The franchise agreement between the City of Reno and Waste Management continues to generate heated debate. Our reporter Bob Conrad of ThisisReno has the latest.
According to a financial audit conducted by an outside firm, the company is in compliance with its agreement with the city.
But last week’s discussion quickly turned sour over a litany of issues about how that agreement has been executed since it was adopted in 2012.
The city’s Sustainability Manager Lynn Barker proposed new measures to address the company’s performance.
“Collecting data from Waste Management is standard practice,” she explained. “We do have an opportunity to take a look at reviewing their operations. It’s in the spirit of process improvement.”
Barker says one of those improvements should be lowering the contamination rate of single-stream recycling materials. Right now, 20 percent of them are contaminated and the city wants to see that number drop to 10 percent.
Another ongoing issue is confusion about whether the franchise agreement gives Waste Management exclusivity for collecting recyclables. Council tabled the discussion and will revisit this issue in February.
